Synthesizers, As Digested by a Classical Musician

thank you to all of my supporters on patreon synthesizers as digested by a classical musician just kidding that's also not quite what I'm getting at I want to know how synthesized sounds can enhance augment and at times stand in place of traditional acoustic sounds in the context of contemporary music if you turn up the resonance really high coming from a classical music background I've been less exposed to digital sounds until quite recently so much of this exploration deals with familiarizing myself with different types of synthesizers and how different types of sounds are created the instrument I'm working on is the cpa v8 and full disclaimer here it was sent to me by yamaha when i moved to new york city recently and for now it's the only keyboard i have to work on so naturally the instrument itself started influencing things I was writing good morning so I am ready to work later on you'll hear how I turned this little musical idea [Music] into the spinal piece but first I want to share with you the process I went through with the help of some of my friends to open my eyes and ears to new types of instruments and synthesized sounds let's see where this goes my friend James Caan showed me some vintage synthesizers while hanging out with my friend Adam Neely we experimented with an analog synthesizer there's a little bit of noise here I kind of like the noise just and my friend Andrew Wollin showed me a bunch of things about modular synthesizers these experiences all shaped a new understanding and appreciation I have of tambour texture and rhythm in relation to sound design and then pitch is like hilarious vibrato the sound that's a good call - that doesn't solve that customer keep it on that sound I [Music] like this kind of like that that like a clipping mm-hmm normally like I try and avoid that but it kind of it's kind of cool in this context so this is the oh the super low Wow yeah is that that sub bass is like it's like those cars that go by and like yeah so you can play that but now you see there's nothing below it oh this is this is the noise noise floor so if you just it will always have that actually you know what we gate that so we don't have so it's kind of like just more of a sine wave but that sound right there every time there's a kick drum it changes the note of the kick drum I don't like the sound but I like the what I find is newer relative to the whole you know history of music is it appreciation for Tambor that's now possible when we're able to create so many new ones Monica Lee oh yeah and then I get bored of it so I did learn quite a bit about the different types of waveforms and how different types of effects are employed using synthesizers but the main takeaway from me could be summed up with these words dialed it tastes like if you want that [Laughter] [Music] there's a DSR attack decay sustain release that's how you make sounds so that's when the sound stops if you have it up there it's gonna keep going on until you shut the Machine off so that's the saw triangle square there just like that's that's like the building blocks of each one of these there are so many different types of synthesizers that work in so many different ways but I've gathered that there are all tools for basically the same thing the ability to design and craft the specific sound to portray a specific color in motion and atmosphere with your musical ideas again as somebody who is not trained in any of this just trying to get by it feels like it's a lot more about how you design the sound of a note rather than how you design the patterns of notes because the patterns of notes could be very simple but the design of that one note can be very complicated oh that's interesting [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] all of these things fed into how I wanted to form my piece and after coming up with that initial idea I did a loose improvisation session around it and ended up transcribing a portion of it to get my composition going okay so I had some good ideas some very questionable ones I also had a visual reference that I personally used to map out the types of rhythmic and harmonic progressions I imagined for the piece and this is what that looked like so similar to how some of these smaller lines kind of sprout out of areas like this or here basically the staggered and irregular nature of the lines represents the irregularity of the rhythmic patterns I use as well as how I want the harmony to move at times a lot of this had to do with the influence I got from hearing irregular patterns generated on the modular synthesizers when I was hanging out with Andrew while writing my piece I was very much influenced by the prospects of being able to design a sound cater to each type of idea I had and layering different sounds that were available to me I took my time in finding what types of combinations I wanted for each section and quite frankly after a bunch of experimentation I found that using a small amount of extra sounds worked the best rather than excessively using the options available so I like how this setting sounds with something like a perfect fit without just adds a little bit of a almost like a halo over these notes so I thought that was cool if you compare that with it's a lot more interesting for this song I find that layering it with the piano is actually a lot more interesting than hearing it by itself this sounds not great to me but with the piano I just like that combination of course I could also see the pros and cons of using an acoustic piano versus a keyboard and inevitably did some comparisons you know I actually quite liked these transitions on the piano [Music] I can play really soft and place off comfortably requires piano if it gets keyboard players it's always a good thing to be able to adjust to different keyboards different types of pianos really fast because that's just the nature of the reality for us do you find this easier to fire off oh you prefer the weight rather fight the weight you're not fighting it just it's you're in touch with the keys when you're when there's weight okay and it's almost like you're writing the resistance whereas with this it feels like you're kind of skating on somebody's slippery this keyboard this particular one is quite heavy compared to other ones it's weighted and there is organic material there's wood in between the keys which really makes a difference but still there's something about the type of resistance here that is not familiar to me and quite different from an acoustic instrument the solution there is just to practice I found that just spending time with this keyboard I was able to feel a lot more comfortable with those differences and what else I think that's it another huge thank you to James Adam and Andrew for helping me out and to Yamaha for supplying me with the keyboard now here's the final piece [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] I hope this video gave you all some ideas for your own musical explorations and thank you so much for watching so this is the type of sounds I don't like like the 80s are you putting on the spot what do I do okay

Channel: Nahre Sol

Views: 583,063

Rating: 4.9383607 out of 5

Keywords: synthesizer, synth music, modular synth, vintage synth, yamaha dx7, roland jupiter 6, synthwave, synth mix, analog synth, sine wave, music theory, music composition, yamaha keyboard, yamaha cp88, how

Id: i3Ag5pwNSiM

Length: 16min 55sec (1015 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 09 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Metroid413]

Nahre Sol is a classical pianist who often makes videos where she explores music of different genres and types and makes compositions based on her experimentation with it. I found it to be really interesting how she approached Synthesizers from her perspective and figured you guys might also enjoy it!

[u/eNailedIt]

Meh. Am I the only one who found her final piece very uninspired?

The bit around 7:05-8:00 with her playing with the minilogue sounded so great.

Her final piece is just a piano sound with a wurlitzer laid over.

Honestly feels like a shame she didn't seem like she fell in love with the 'knob twiddling' aspect of synths. Seemed like a waste of all the actual synth/sound design exploration with minilogue/jupter 6, the modular wall etc.

Final bit just sounded like a piano player showing off her keyboard skills.

Even the patch she uses is the most basic epiano sound.

[u/robertsyrett]

The two most relatable moments for me were when she was messing around with the minilogue, and having a blast making weird sounds, and then later when she was listening back to her compositions and was like "nah." I think we have all been there.

[u/doc_muffins]

I love her videos. As someone who was originally weaned in 4/4 land without any classical training, I love the science and notations she brings to her videos. There's something very interesting about watching her take her very organic and technical skills and apply them to different genres and devices with a scientific flair for analysis. =)